


Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High

by allweneedofhell



Category: Euphoria (TV 2019)
Genre: F/F, Friends to Lovers, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-12-07 13:03:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20976335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allweneedofhell/pseuds/allweneedofhell
Summary: got this idea from @captaintopaz on twitter. give her a follow!based off the song "Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High" by the Arctic Monkeys. Rue is constantly calling Lexi when she's fucked up. And Lexi is madly in love with her best friend, so of course she answers.





	Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High

The first time Rue called Lexi high as a fucking kite, Lexi was honestly just happy to be talking to her best friend. It had been months since they had an actual conversation (and mumbling “hi, how are you?” in the hallway at school did  _ not  _ count). Lexi missed Rue so much, but she had no idea how to reach out to her. Rue ran solo those days, really only talking to Fez to score. 

“Lexxxxxxiiiiii.” Rue slurred. It was three in the morning on a Thursday night, but Rue’s addiction knew no bounds. Lexi had seen her come to school fucked up before. 

“Hey Rue.” Lexi whispered, trying to not wake up her sister, who was snoring softly across the room from her. 

“Lexiiiii. I was just thinking about how we used to go roller skating and how I haven’t gone in forevverrrrr.” It was hard to understand Rue-it sounded like she was talking with her mouth full-but Lexi was piecing together what she was saying. 

“Yeah, that used to be our thing.” Lexi couldn’t help but feel sad. She hadn’t really hung out with Rue in years. Once she started using, that’s all she cared about and Lexi got put on the back burner. It was really hard to be around Rue when she was on drugs, but Lexi would have done it anyways-she loved Rue with all her heart. 

“Lesss go soon!” Rue said, excitedly. 

“Sure, I’d love that.” Lexi tried to sound cheerful, but she knew Rue would just forget this conversation in the morning. 

“I misssss you, Howard.” Tears started welling in Lexi’s eyes. Her heart fucking ached for Rue and she had no idea. Lexi had been in love with Rue for years-their “practice” kiss freshman year confirmed that. She was always too terrified to tell her, even though she was sure Rue was into girls-she never imagined in a million years that Rue would be interested in her. Lexi was just her best friend, and that’s all she would ever be. 

“I miss you so much Rue.” At first, there was nothing-silence. Lexi panicked, thinking the worst.  _ Did she overdose?  _ Then, Lexi could hear soft breathing through her phone’s speaker.  _ Thank god.  _ Rue had just fallen asleep suddenly, which wasn’t surprising, given her speech and the amount of pills she had taken. “I love you.” Lexi said softly, before hanging up. 

…

When Rue overdosed, Lexi visited her in rehab. She walked through the halls-her mind racing as she held onto a stuffed teddy bear holding the message “GET WELL SOON” in a bright red heart. She knew it was cheesy as hell, but she was hoping it would make Rue smile. 

It didn’t. 

Rue was silent, almost fucking catatonic for the majority of Lexi’s visit. Lexi talked about her mom and Cassie’s drama with her boyfriend-she had just started to see Christopher McKay. Lexi thought all the gossip would help Rue feel like a normal teenager again, but she just stared off into the distance-grunting a word or two every once and awhile. 

As Lexi went to leave, she gave Rue’s hand a quick squeeze and fuck, she had the softest skin. She was about to head out the door of the common area when-

“Thanks for the bear, Lex.”

Lexi couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day. 

…

It had been about a week since their confrontation in the bathroom when Rue called again. And this time, it was almost impossible for Lexi to comprehend what Rue was saying. 

“LLLLLLLeeexxxxxxxxiiiiiiiiiii.” Rue slurred quietly. “LLLLLLLeeeexxxxiii I miss yeewwwwwww.”

Lexi almost didn’t respond-she was still upset about how Rue had treated her the week before. This time, Rue went far enough to piss her off. She was just trying to care for Rue, to maybe give her a god damn hug, but Rue had snapped at her-hard. It made Lexi feel like she was nothing to her “best friend”, which fucking stung. Lexi was used to it by now; they were 17 and Rue had been abusing drugs and their friendship since the beginning of high school, but it still didn’t hurt any less. 

“I miss you too, Rue.” Lexi sighed. She was powerless when it came to Rue, even if she did treat her like shit. 

“I’mmmmm on a clouddddd.” Rue sounded...different. Lexi had heard her on just about every drug imaginable, but this was next level. 

“Rue, are you okay? What did you take?” Lexi’s biggest fear was that Rue would overdose again. She knew Rue wouldn’t get so lucky the second time around; she barely survived the first OD. 

“Lexi?” A familiar voice came through the line.  _ Jules. _ Lexi was immediately pissed off.  _ They are doing drugs together now?  _ But then she realized how clearly Jules had spoken, and how sober she sounded, and that thought got pushed to the back of her mind. The anger didn’t however, because how could Jules let Rue get this fucked up? They were practically inseparable these days; Lexi had definitely been replaced. 

“What’s going on with Rue? Is she okay?” Lexi was panicking now. It took everything in her to not hang up the phone and race over to Rue’s house. 

“She took Fentanyl. It was this whole messed up situation with Fez’s dealer and-I don’t know, he called me and I took her to my house so that her mom wouldn’t find out.” Lexi’s heart dropped into her stomach-she felt like she might throw up.  _ Fentanyl? Fucking fentanyl?  _ Lexi wasn’t stupid, she watched the news. Fentanyl was causing overdoses and deaths all across the country. Never in a million years did she think Rue would touch the stuff-no matter how bad her addiction got. 

“Jules. Is Rue going to be okay? I need to fucking know.” Lexi asked urgently. She realized how rude she must have sounded (after all, this wasn’t Jules’ fault), but she couldn’t stop herself. 

“Yeah, she’s going to be fine. We gave her some Narcan. She just needs to sleep it off now, I think.”

“Okay well, should I come over there?” Lexi was desperate to see Rue. She knew Jules was telling the truth and that the blonde would take good care of her, but she wanted to see for herself how Rue was doing. 

“I got it, Lexi. It’s late. I’ll tell her to call you tomorrow though.” Jules said before hanging up. Lexi’s mind was racing. She was about to put on her jacket and bike over to Jules’ house, before Cassie woke up. 

“Lex, what’s wrong? Where are you going?” She asked from her bed, wiping the sleep from her eyes. 

“It’s Rue. She took fentanyl and she’s at Jules’ house and I’ve gotta go see her, Cass. I gotta make sure she’s okay-” As Lexi rambled, Cassie moved swiftly to her little sister’s side, holding onto her right before she collapsed into a fit of tears. 

“Shhh. It’s okay. I’ve got you.” Cassie was holding Lexi in her lap on the floor. The weight of the situation was crashing down on Lexi, and her knees couldn’t hold anymore. She buried her face into Cassie’s shoulder, silently sobbing. 

“I love her. I love her so much, I always have.” Lexi choked out in between sobs. 

“I know, Lex. I know.”

…

For the first time in years, Rue was actually clean. It had only been a couple weeks, but still, she was actually making progress. She regularly went to NA meetings, had a sponsor, and genuinely seemed happy. As much as Lexi hated to admit it, Rue’s sobriety was all because of Jules. She wished Rue would have gotten sober for her mom, for Gia, for her, but she couldn’t be selfish. She had gotten to hang around her best friend again, and she was actually coherent and smiling. Lexi couldn’t remember the last time she had seen Rue with a grin as wide as her face, but fuck, she had missed it. Even though Jules was there, Lexi had an amazing time at the roller skating rink. Rue probably didn’t remember, but she had actually held up her promise from a previous phone call; to go skating with Lexi, like they had when they were kids. Now Lexi felt like she was the one on fentanyl-she was on cloud fucking nine. 

Now it was the night of the winter formal, and Lexi was wasted. She had never really drank before, besides a sip or two of her mom’s wine in the fifth grade. Her and Rue had tip-toed downstairs late at night, while Lexi’s mom was passed out on the couch. On the coffee table was a half empty bottle of wine, and it was not Suze’s first of the night given her current state. They snuck the bottle upstairs to Lexi’s room, and took turns taking swigs. Lexi gagged and almost threw up immediately-she hated the taste. On the other hand, Rue had loved it (go figure), and polished off the rest of the bottle. When Lexi panicked, worrying that her mom would notice it was gone, Rue reassured her. “She’s wasted, Lexi. She won’t remember a thing.” And Rue was right; her mom didn’t say a word the next morning. 

With Gatorade and Everclear running through her, Lexi had finally worked up the courage to go find Rue and tell her how she felt. Except, she was gone. Lexi checked the entire dance floor multiple times, the photo booth, even the fucking bathrooms. And Rue was nowhere to be found. Lexi also noticed Jules was absent. 

_ Fucking great.  _

She went home defeated, sticking her head out the passenger window to get some fresh air. She realized she must have looked ridiculous, but she was drunk and the world was spinning. When Lexi got home, she didn’t even bother to change. She collapsed into her mattress with her formal dress still on. She fought off the nauseous feeling in the pit of her stomach-she couldn’t decide whether that was from the alcohol or Rue-and quickly fell into a deep sleep. 

…

A couple of hours later, Lexi woke up to her phone ringing and buzzing all over her dresser. She had no concept of time, or what day it was. Her head was fucking pounding. Groaning, she reached over to grab her phone, and answered the call.

“Lex?” A soft voice came from the other line.  _ Rue.  _ Except this time, she didn’t sound absolutely fucked out of her mind. 

“Rue! Hey.” Lexi immediately shot up in her bed, which was a mistake-the room started to spin violently. She planted her feet on the floor, to try to gain some balance. “Is everything okay?”

“J-Jules left.” Rue whimpered. “I-I don’t know what to do Lex, I just want to numb everything-” Lexi’s heart sank in her chest. She knew how much Rue cared about Jules-she was hopelessly in love with the girl, but something bad must have happened between them at formal. And Rue didn’t deal with bad situations well. Lexi knew what she had to do. She was extremely dizzy, but she started to get up, to throw on a t-shirt and sweats. 

“Rue, it’s okay. I’m coming over, okay? Hold on until I get there, please?”

“Okay.” Rue said softly. “Please hurry, I need you.”

Even though Lexi knew Rue only needed her because Jules was gone, she couldn’t help but smile on her bike ride over to the Bennett house. 

_ Finally, Rue needs ME.  _

…

When Lexi arrived at Rue’s house, she tapped on Rue’s window, silently climbing through. Rue helped her down from the ledge, Lexi wasn’t her most graceful self right now because- okay, she might still be kind of drunk. When she finally got her feet on solid ground, she looked Rue up and down. She was still wearing her formal attire, and damn she looked amazing. Lexi hadn’t seen Rue in a dress in years. She still made the outfit her own though, with black dress pants underneath and a blazer on top. Her brown curls were a frizzy mess, and any makeup she had on earlier was now running down her face. 

“Rue, what happened? Are you okay?” Rue didn’t respond, only threw herself at Lexi, almost knocking the girl backwards. Lexi held onto Rue tightly, holding her as she sobbed. They eventually sank onto the floor, with Rue’s head in Lexi’s lap. Lexi ran her fingers through Rue’s curls, rubbing her back with her other hand. She had been with Rue during countless panic attacks, and knew just what to do to calm the girl down. 

Once the crying subsided, Rue was very quiet. For a second, Lexi thought she must have fallen asleep in her lap.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Lexi asked. 

“Not really. I should have listened to everyone. Nothing is permanent.”

Lexi really didn’t know what to say to that. She wanted to make Rue feel better, but she knew no amount of words would ease her pain right now. Lexi just continued to run her hands down Rue’s back, drawing circles with her fingers on the small of Rue’s back. 

“Mmm, that feels nice.” 

“Why’d you only call me when you’re high?” Lexi blurted out. “I mean, except for tonight. You only really talk to me when you are fucked up.”

Rue flipped onto her back, looking up at Lexi. Even with her glittery makeup strewn across her face, she looked gorgeous. Lexi’s felt all fluttery-Rue still gave her butterflies after all these years. 

“What do you mean? I’ve called you high before?” Of course she didn’t remember. 

“Yeah, once before you overdosed, and again, when you took fentanyl. I thought you were gonna die that night.”

Rue closed her eyes, bringing her fingers up to rub her temples, like she was working through what she was going to say next. 

“I guess-I guess I always knew it was safe to call you. You always make me feel, I don’t know...protected in some way.” Rue smirked, chuckling softly to herself. “It sounds ridiculous, I know. But you’ve always been there for me, Lex. Even my fucked up brain knows that.”

Lexi felt like she was going to cry. After years of being forgotten about, Rue was finally giving her the attention she had craved. Maybe she was feeling confident from the alcohol, but she knew it was time. Time to tell Rue how she had been feeling all her life. 

“Rue I-I’m in love with you. That’s why I haven’t given up after all these years. It’s why I still answer at three am when you call me, slurring your words. Even when you don’t talk to me for months, I still love you. I watched you with Jules because I knew she was making you happy. Even though it broke my heart, seeing you happy was all I really wanted and I-” 

All of the sudden, Rue’s lips were on hers. Lexi felt like her whole body was on fire. At first, she froze, then eased into the kiss, moving her lips slowly against Rue’s. Just as Lexi was about to deepen the kiss, Rue pulled away, resting her forehead against Lexi’s. She could feel Rue’s hot breath on her face, wanting nothing more than to pull her in again. 

“Please stay with me tonight.” Rue whispered, smiling softly at Lexi.

No slurring, no forgotten promises. The best words Rue had ever said to Lexi at three am. 

“I’ll stay.”

**Author's Note:**

> what did y'all think? i'm starting to get major writer's block for my chapter stories, so I have a couple one-shots in the works (don't worry, I'll still update the other ones eventually).


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